Kruger elephant deaths: The question SANParks still hasn’t answered
The debate surrounding 951 elephant deaths in the Kruger National Park has largely become a discussion about conservation science. It should instead be a discussion about public accountability, the ethical limits of state authority over wildlife, and why every deliberate killing of a wild elephant demands individual justification.
In the past four months since a formal request to SANParks under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia), the public has yet to receive the justification for the 207 elephant killings in Kruger National Park. SANParks has provided the mortality database, which details 951 elephant deaths from January 2020 to December 2025, but crucially, it has not shared the evidence behind each individual decision.
This omission raises questions about the transparency and accountability of the institution that exercises lethal authority over protected wildlife. The killing of a healthy, sentient elephant is a morally distinct act that ends the life of a subject whose interests conservation aims to protect, and therefore, should never be viewed as a routine management response.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
